Captains Corner: Checking in with Varsity Football
A large chunk of last year’s varsity football squad graduated and are now playing at the collegiate level. Despite losing so many key components, the team are off to a great start this year, winning three of their first four games with a combined score of 105 to 13. This week, we sat down with Owen Moreland ’25, one of three captains on the team this year, to get his thoughts on how the season has gone so far.
How long have you been a member of the varsity football team?
“This is my third year at Avon and third on the varsity team. It’s my first year as captain. I play some running back, but I’m primarily a linebacker. That’s my main position. I’ll be playing linebacker when I go to Elon University next year.”
What does the role of football captain entail?
“Make sure everyone is on time to everything like practice, film sessions, meetings, even meals and stuff like that. Also keeping up the energy at practice is a big one. The captains will also have some extra meetings with Coach Wholley to go over some things.”
What strategies do you use to be an effective leader?
“My main one is to always lead by example. That goes for football, schoolwork, everything.”
How has the season gone so far?
“It’s gone pretty well so far. We came up just short against Brunswick but we bounced back. Our team chemistry is very good this year. We have a really balanced team with a lot of room to grow. We had a lot of new kids to start, but we’ve been able to bring all the personalities together.”
What has been the highlight of the season so far?
“Probably pre-season camp. It’s really great seeing all the guys you missed over the summer. It’s also really nice seeing the new guys come out of their shell. We’re all really close now.”
Advice for aspiring football players?
“Probably the main piece of advice I’ve realized is that rankings don’t matter. You’ll see and hear stuff during preseason about how good some players or teams are, but the reality is that we can compete with anyone.”
Owen and his teammates will travel to Taft on Saturday for their next game starting at 3 p.m. Livestream information is available on the athletics page of our website.